Just back from a nearly two-week business trip to the West Coast that included taking in the 55th ASIS Int'l show in Anaheim, Calif., in the shadow of Disneyland. My jaunt also included a working breakfast with SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION's Editorial Advisory Board and SSI's 2010 planning meetings. Consequently, I am very excited about what we have in store for our readers in the coming year. You can get a sense of some of it by checking out our new media kit.
As for ASIS, there was no question about the traffic being down and exhibitors (fewer in number and taking up less floor space than in recent years) were especially concerned when the first day was about as busy as a costume store the day after Halloween. Fortunately for everyone the second day was acceptably busy, even while the last day was typically barren. Regardless, the majority of the many exhibitors I spoke with were completely satisfied with the event because they achieved their lead generation goals. Although there were fewer feet in the aisles, the ones who found the time and money to make the trip were for the most part very serious prospects. The recession may be reducing security revenues for now, but it is also keeping most of the tire-kickers away. And, speaking of recession, the outlook may be brightening as integrators I caught up with at ASIS reported that projects were beginning to increase. Hallelujah!
Security professionals catching up outside ASIS 2009 at the Anaheim Convention Center.
One of the leading trends I observed at the show was vendors, especially those with other divisions and parent companies, reorganizing in ways to exploit cross-market and cross-technology synergies as well as maximize efficiencies and systems integration. These are strategies that in many cases had been theorized but the necessity was not substantial enough to overcome the tendency for people within different business units to be siloed and territorial -- until now. Today it is a question of business survival to maximize compentencies across the enterprise, regardless of who's kicking and screaming (some of them all the way to the unemployment line) in the process. It will be interesting to see how things shake out with these companies once the dust settles.
Some of the other notable developments evident at the show were: more tweaks and updates rather than completely new products or platforms; more standardizing with H.264 compression; more pushing storage and processing to the edge in cameras; more IP connectivity in access control and intrusion systems; more open architectures and interoperability alliances among vendors; more true systems integration; more robust video and security systems management systems, with more ways to make actionable and evidential sense of voluminous surveillance data; hybrid solutions to ease transitioning from analog to IP video; iPhone apps and similar to allow remote security system access; continuing technology sophistication by high level end users; and old-school manufacturers scrambling to add network capabilities to their offerings.
Although the aisles were not as packed as previous years, exhibitors were pleased with the leads they obtained.
As usual, the show also included lots of educational sessions (most targeting ASIS' end-user audience), mixers, awards, parties and other events apart from the event. All in all, it was a very productive show from my standpoint, as the 40 or so meetings I had scheduled and countless impromptu sessions were all very positive. And fortunately the air conditioning held up (even if my blistered feet did not!) while temperatures outside reached triple digits. Upcoming entries in this blog will include further details from the ASIS show. In the meantime, be sure to take a look at our news coverage and check out our November issue for a complete news and product roundup. Oh yeah, and by the way ISC East is already coming up later this month!
As always, thanks for reading ...
Scot Goldfine
Editor-in-Chief
SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION
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